Percy's P.O.V
The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.
The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry water slides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.
"If Ares brings Aphrodite here for a date, " I said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to know what they do. "
"Percy, " Luke warned. "Be more respectful. "
"Why? I thought you hated Ares." I asked turning away from the sign and toward Luke my eyes furrowed.
"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental. "
"You don't want to insult her looks, " Beck added.
I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?"
"Maia!" Beck's shoes sprouted wings.
He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"
Luke and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.
The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?
No monsters came to get us. Nothing made the slightest noise.
We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of-
"Clothes, " Luke said. "Fresh clothes. "
"Yeah, " I said. "But you can't just-"
"Watch me. "
He snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later he came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over his shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.
"What the heck. " Beck shrugged. Soon, all three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park but I didn't have the backpack seeing how I already had one.
We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite, " I said, to keep my mind off the growing dark, "they still have a thing going on?"
"That's old gossip, Percy, " Luke told me. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip. "
"What about Aphrodite's husband?"
"Well, you know, " he said. "Hephaestus. The black-smith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"
"She likes bikers? " I asked
"Apparently. Dad was never a 'get out of the house' person more 'stay indoors'." Beck said
"Hephaestus knows." I tried to make it a statement but I guess it came out more of a questions.
"Oh sure, " Beck said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like ... "
He stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that. "
In front of us was an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.
Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!
I crept toward the edge. "Guys, look. "
Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.
"This is too easy, " I said. "So we just walk down there and get it?" but a particular cupid statue got my attention, running my fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue,"There's a Greek letter carved here, " I said. "Eta. I wonder... "
Luke took a deep breath. "I'm going down there. "
"I'll go with you. " Beck didn't sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.
"No, " Luke told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong. "
Beck puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"
"I don't know. Just a feeling. Percy, come with me-"
"Are you kidding?" I looked at him as if he'd just dropped from the moon. My cheeks were on fire.
"What's the problem now?" Luke demanded.
"Me, go with you to the ... The 'Thrill Ride of Love'?"
"Fine, " Luke told me. "I'll do it myself. " But when I started down the side of the pool following him muttering about complications and preferences.
We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride. Why?
Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.
I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable-rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. I smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against my cheek when Luke ripped it out of my hand and stuffed it in his pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic. "
"What?"
"Lets just get the shield and let's get out of here."
The moment Luke touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble, "Wait, " I said.
"Too late. " Luke
"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap." Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.
Beck yelled, "Guys!"
Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at us. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.
"We have to get out, " Luke said.
"Duh!" I said.
He grabbed the shield and we ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.
"Come on!" Beck shouted.
He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.
The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute ... Fifty- nine seconds, fifty-eight ... "
"Hephaestus!" I screamed. "I'm so stupid. ' Eta is H. ' He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"
We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic ... Things poured out.
It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.
"Spiders!" I said, I was never a real fan of spiders with too many legs and eyes and just like, everywhere. I mentally shivered
The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding us. I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral us and bite us and make us look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And we weren't gods.
Luke and I climbed into the boat. We started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. "Thirty, twenty-nine, " called the loudspeaker.
The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Luke's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe.
Beck hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to the pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.
Think, I told myself. Think.
The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a mil-lion robot spiders.
"Fifteen, fourteen, " the loudspeaker called.
Water, I thought. Where does the ride's water come from?
Then I saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from. And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass-windowed booth that must be the controller's station.
"Beck!" I yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"
"But-"
"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was our only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Beck was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.
"Five, four-"
He looked up at me hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting me know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening, he looked like he was trying to rewire things but we didn't have any time to spare.
I closed my eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. I felt a familiar tug in my gut. I tried to imagine that I was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver.
"Two, one, zero!"
Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. Luke pulled me into the seat next to me and fastened my seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool.
The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst.
Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.
But I could only concentrate on controlling the boat. I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was my imagination, but the boat seemed to respond.
At least, it didn't break into a million pieces. We spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred us against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.
I held tight onto Luke because even if I did this, I was still 9 and this was just a tad much for my taste. I was screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff.
Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.
If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool.
"Unfasten your seat belt, " Luke yelled to me.
"Are you crazy?"
"Unless you want to get smashed to death. " Luke strapped Ares's shield to his arm. "We're going to have to jump for it. "
I understood what we were going to do. The idea was simple and insane. As the boat struck, we would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate.
I'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, we would land in the pool.
I gripped his hand as the gates got closer unconsciously. "On my mark, " Luke said.
"No! On my mark!"
"What?"
"Simple physics!" I yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle-"
"Fine. '" Luke shouted. "On your mark!"
I hesitated ... Hesitated ... Then yelled, "Now!"
Crack! I was right. I got us maximum lift.
Unfortunately, that was a little more than we needed. Our boat smashed into the pile up and we were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.
Something grabbed me from behind.
Luke yelled, "Ouch!"
Beck!
In midair, he had grabbed me by the shirt, and Luke by the arm, and was trying to pull us out of a crash landing, but Luke and I had all the momentum.
"You're too heavy!" Beck said. "We're going down!"
We spiraled toward the ground, Beck doing his best to slow the fall.
We smashed into a photo-board, Beck's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. Luke and I tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on his arm.
Once we caught our breath, Luke and I got Beck out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving our lives. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates.
A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.
I gave a thumbs up with a smile plaster and yelled"Show's over! Thank you! Good night!"
The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good.
I hated being teased. I hated being tricked. And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to me even if the Avengers helped me it was still annoying. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."